Subtitles and Captions

There are rules and guidelines for subtitles and captions, and these vary depending on their intended use, and which media broadcaster is requiring them. Guidelines include the formatting and positioning of the text, and importantly, all of the ways in which sound and dialogue must be identified and notated.

Who is responsible for providing them?

The filmmaker and/or producer makes sure to have these created and provides the files.

Translated languages: English is considered to be the international language standard, so if the film's dialogue is not in English, the filmmaker must arrange to have subtitles created in the original and English languages. The festival is responsible for translating the subtitle text into their own language if it is other than English.

What is provided?

Dialogue script: a basic text document that provides all of the dialogue and names of who is speaking.

SRT subtitle file: (SubRip Subtitle is a specially prepared file) If the film's language is other than English, an SRT file is created for this, and a second SRT captioning file is provided in English.

All descriptions and interpretations are not equal!

While it seems like a creative interpretation, it is quite important to have your captions provide the needed information that lets the hard-of-hearing audience know what is going on. That said, using the best descriptive words can make a big difference in how information is understood. For example, look at all of the ways that music is described in various Netflix films.

But, There are a LOT of Rules for Professional Broadcasting.

Consider both Netflix and the BBC's guide for subtitling to learn about requirements for interpreting dialogue performance, accents in speech and dialect, incorrect grammar, pauses, interruptions timing for jokes and humour, and more. There are some significant differences between the two companies.

Netflix Caption Guidelines (English)

Capital Creations Caption Guidelines

BBC "How Do I Create Subtitles"

BBC Subtitle Guidelines

Basic FORMATTING Guidelines

Types of fonts

• must be simple and easy to read
• most often is a sans serif or simple serif font, medium weight
• Use a non-proportional font, also called monospace, if possible. A non-proportional font uses the same fixed width to display its characters, while a proportional font uses varying widths to display each of its letters and symbols. 

Fonts often used in captions/subtitles

Monospace / non-proportional fonts: Monaco, Courier

Proportional fonts: (sans serif) Lucia Grande, Tahoma, Verdana, Arial; (serif) Times, 

Size of font

• 47pt for HD resolution (1920 x 1080)
• 32pt for SD Standard Def resolution
• This frame grab shows the font size of captions/subtitles in the screen

Colour of font

• white: standard colour open captions, closed captions
• yellow: narrator voice; used less frequently than white as a general colour
• other colours: used to separate different speakers in a dialogue scene

Alignment

• horizontally, it is usually centered
• vertically, it is usually in the lower third so it doesn't obscure important information. If there IS important information down there, you can temporarily place the subtitle/caption text in the next closest spot for that shot.
• Layers or horizontal positioning on sides of screen: if there are multiple characters speaking, the dialogue can be layered one on top of the other, or they can be placed on the side the character is located. If it is a dialogue between, try to connect them so they indicate continuity. For example, in this image:

• TECH BUG NOTE: Premiere Pro "alignment" option do not work automatically. Use the "Position Caption Block" icon in the formatting toolbar to quickly set this up. You may need to make X and Y position adjustments, but this should do the trick.

Some General Guides

How much text? The number of text characters per line: limit of 42

Appearance timing: always aim to match the appearance of the subtitle to coincide with the onset of the spoken dialogue. Avoid having subtitles carry into the next shot, or from appearing before the shot begins.

Pacing: have the subtitle match the pace of the line of dialogue, and do not let it linger more than 1.5 seconds after it is completed. 

Moving lips: if there are moving lips on a character, there always needs to be subtitles.

Who is speaking? Using separate colours on multiple character's lines of dialogue is preferred but not always possible. Otherwise, it's common to use name labels.

Where the speech for two or more speakers of different colours is combined in one subtitle, their speech runs on: i.e. you don't start a new line for each new speaker. Example:

Did you see Jane? I thought she went home.

But, if using white text only and two or more speakers are interacting, you have to start a new line for each new speaker, preceded by a hyphen without a space.

-Did you see Jane?
-I thought she went home.

By convention, a narrator is indicated by a yellow colour.

Interruptions: Use two hyphens to indicate abrupt interruptions.

             -What are you--
             -Be quiet!

She hesitated… about accepting the job.

…have signed an agreement.

Line Treatment

• Maximum two lines.
  
• Text should usually be kept to one line, unless it exceeds the character limitation.
• Prefer a bottom-heavy pyramid shape for subtitles when multiple line break options present themselves, but avoid having just one or two words on the top line.
• Follow these basic principles when the text has to be broken into 2 lines:
• The line should be broken:
  • after punctuation marks
  • before conjunctions
  • before prepositions
• The line break should not separate
  • a noun from an article
  • a noun from an adjective
  • a first name from a last name
  • a verb from a subject pronoun
  • a prepositional verb from its preposition
  • a verb from an auxiliary, reflexive pronoun or negation

Some GUIDELINES and SAMPLES in application

Here are some examples of what these look like when applied.

Speaker Identifiers

Language Identifiers